This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Some Toronto councillors are "two steps left" of the dictator, he tells a radio host.

By Robyn DoolittleUrban Affairs Reporter

Tues., Jan. 24, 2012

Joseph Stalin didn’t care about taxpayers.

That’s the most benefit-of-the-doubt way to take a radio comment made by Mayor Rob Ford on Tuesday morning, which likened five political rivals to the murderous Russian dictator.

Speaking on the John Oakley show, Ford told the AM640 host that certain councillors are “two steps left of Joe Stalin.”

Ford was being questioned as to whether he had lost support of council’s middle. Oakley pointed to the fact that self-proclaimed centrist Josh Matlow recently stated he would not back Ford’s plan to do away with the land transfer tax.

“I consider him a left-wing NDPer. I’m not surprised. It’s just like saying Adam Vaughan or (Gord) Perks or (Janet) Davis or (Paula) Fletcher is not voting with me,” said Ford.

Article Continued Below

“These people are all two steps left of Joe Stalin. So I’m not discouraged by that and I don’t expect it. They don’t care about the taxpayers. But I know one person who does, and that’s me.”

Councillor Perks refused to comment on Ford’s words. “I’m trying to do real work,” he responded.

Matlow went to Ford’s office to discuss the comment afterwards.

“I wasn’t asking for an apology. I just wanted to have a conversation about it so we can move forward. We’re discussing so many issues right now: affordable housing, transit. I want the drama to stop. It’s not helpful.”

Vaughan chalked it up to Ford being Ford.

“It’s one of those things that Mayor Ford says that no one understands. He’s just lashing out. I don’t think anyone should compare any member of council to Joseph Stalin,” Vaughan said.

Ford’s mouth has got him in trouble before. In 2008 he angered Toronto’s Asian community after telling council “Oriental people work like dogs.”

Peter Vronsky, a professor of history at Ryerson University who specializes in serial homicide and war crimes, said that despite the fact the Russian dictator killed twice as many people as Adolf Hitler, people seem generally less offended by him.

One reason might be that Stalin was an ally during WWII, he said.

Stalin reign over the Soviet Union lasted for a quarter of a century. His political ruthlessness, push for rapid industrialization and collectivized farming led to the deaths of millions. Thousands of his political foes were executed and sent to labour camps.

“Technically, Stalin is considered to be a right-wing communist, if you can appreciate such a concept, (but he was also) among the century’s largest mass murderers,” Vronsky said.

“If you’re going to compare a municipal councillor to Joseph Stalin, who was a dictator and not elected, that’s where the offence is.”

Fidel Castro would have been a better choice, Vronsky said.

Joseph Stalin, 1879-1953

When the Communist dictator finally died of a stroke, he had ruled the Soviet Union for nearly three decades.

The Great Purge: In the 1930s, Stalin was responsible for the execution, internment in labour camps and exile of millions of perceived and real political foes. He expanded the secret police and encouraged neighbours to spy on one another. These repressions led to the decimation of the country’s army, leaving Russia unequipped to battle Hitler, and the death of as many as a million people.

Famine: Stalin pushed rapid industrialization in the largely peasant country and collectivized agriculture, leading to mass starvation. Soviet troops and police raided peasant crops and stole food from their homes. Some historians estimate as many as 10 million perished in a man-made famine in the early 1930s in the Ukraine.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com